A Message from your Local Union President
Following this year’s General Membership Meeting on May 25, 2016 I was acclaimed as the President of our Local. I am joined by a great executive, with two new executive officers: Chris Harris and Deborah Tsagris. Chris was acclaimed as our new VP/Communications Officer and Deb was acclaimed as our new Chief Steward. Both Chris and Deb have served as stewards for a number of years and have been significant contributors and valued stewards on our Local. Bill Chilton remains as our Treasurer and he continues to work diligently and skillfully to ensure our Local’s financial health. I am really looking forward to working with Chris, Deb and Bill to continue to serve our members. Our objective is to provide good stewardship of our Collective Agreement – our contract of employment with the College.
It’s spring time and that means for many of us that we have students graduating this week. With that top of mind I came across a recent graduation ceremony speech by the Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education who spoke about the 5 essential questions all of us working in education should regularly ask. I think these questions probably have universal application and, importantly, they do seem to apply to those of us engaged in the education of our college students. I hope you find the questions interesting and maybe even inspirational. Here is the link:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/16/05/good-questions
I invite you to reach out to your Local stewards and executive officers at any time if you have a question or concern that relates to your employment and/or Collective Agreement. If you would like to talk with me personally or arrange to meet please email me at: nicolefromdurham@gmail.com. I regularly check this email account and will be available throughout the summer.
For those of you who are soon on vacation – enjoy! We will see you back here in preparation for the Fall 2016 semester after you have taken the time to relax and rejuvenate. For those of you who are teaching this summer – stay cool and enjoy the long weekends!
All the best,
Nicole Zwiers
President, Local 354